In Brief: U.S. banks' earnings decline

May 29, 2014 12:01 AM

FILE - In this file photo taken Oct. 16, 2009, customers use ATM machines at a Bank of America branch office in Boston. The FDIC reported that the U.S. banking industry earned $37.2 billion in the first quarter of 2014, down from $40.3 billion in the same period in 2013. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole, File)AP

May 29, 2014 12:01 AM

U.S. banks' earnings declined 7.7 percent in the January-March quarter from a year earlier, as higher interest rates dampened demand for mortgage refinancing and reduced banks' revenue from the mortgage business.

The data issued Wednesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. highlighted the impact of the increase in interest rates that occurred in the spring of 2013.

It was only the second time in the past 19 quarters that the banking industry, which has been recovering from the financial crisis, posted a decline in net income from the year-earlier quarter.

The FDIC reported that the banking industry earned $37.2 billion in the first quarter of this year, down from $40.3 billion in the same period in 2013.

Expenses went up in 2013 for families

Kids and cars are soaking up more family money than they used to.

A survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the average income for families of all sorts decreased from 2012 to 2013 by $103 to $65,069 before taxes, but their expenses went up by $777 a year to $51,408.

The biggest share of the increased expenses of the average American household went to transportation, which cost a total of $8,999 a year, or $494 more than the previous year, as a result of purchase prices going up.

Amazon: Negotiations could drag out

Amazon says a dispute between it and publisher Hachette that has made it more difficult to find Hachette books on the site could drag out.

It is even saying that customers should go to its competitors if they need a book published by the major New York publishing house quickly.